About Us

History

The year was 1996. Bill Jack, Jeff Baldwin, Randy Sims, and Todd Kent envisioned a place where Christian students could learn to live courageously in the hope of Jesus. The four men came together, with differing gifts and talents, to realize this dream and create a community where young believers could seek a deeper understanding of their faith. Forty students and a handful of staff gathered in Tehuacana, Texas for a week-long, biblically-intensive summer camp centered on worldviews, apologetics, and servant leadership. Twenty years, 280 camps, and over 30,000 students later, the mission is still the same: to train Christians to think and live in accord with a biblical worldview.

What We Teach

Worldview Academy is proud to have a distinguished faculty from a variety of different professions, Christian traditions, and areas of the country. The faculty teams travel with one of three staff teams each summer, teaching sessions that reflect their areas of expertise, facilitating practicums, interacting with students and small groups, and sometimes joining in on the frisbee matches.

This list outlines the key concepts we hope to communicate at Worldview Academy Leadership Camps. It is not an index of lectures; rather, the list inventories the ideas the various lectures touch on, directly or indirectly.

Faculty

Randy Sims

Randy Sims is Worldview Academy's Executive Director of Ministry. He has trained Christian teens and adults in camps and ministries for over 30 years through his service as a leadership staff member with Kanakuk Kamps, Fellowship of Christian Athletes national staff, and T Bar M Sports Camps. As director and founder of the Worldview Academy Leadership Camps, Randy is responsible for the leadership training of over 2500 students and adults each year. Randy is the author of The Greatest Among You, a student’s guide to servant leadership. His work has afforded him the opportunity to lead chapel services for both college and professional sports teams, and to participate with the Billy Graham Crusade as a platform speaker. Randy and his wife, Amy, are blessed with four adult children and live in Midland, Texas.

Bill Jack

Bill Jack is an educator with ten years experience in public schools and 14 years with The Caleb Campaign, a creationist youth ministry. Bill has appeared on numerous national radio and television programs and is the producer of several apologetic and worldview training DVDs. As a founder of Worldview Academy he continues to pursue his passion to raise up a generation who have the vision to reach their culture with the gospel, who have the valor to engage that culture with the truth and who rely on the virtue of the Word of God. Bill and his wife, Tabby, have three children and live in Colorado.

Jeff Baldwin

Jeff Baldwin co-founded Worldview Academy and serves as the research director for that ministry. He also is the acting provost for Worldview at the Abbey, a bridge year program in Colorado for students who want to be fully equipped to be salt and light on the college campus. TheGreatBooks.com, Worldview Academy's premier educational website, was created by Jeff. Educators can use this site to teach the classics from the Christian perspective; TheGreatBooks.com features study guides for works ranging from Homer's Odyssey to Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship. Jeff has published a worldview primer, a worldview devotional, and a collection of essays, poems and short stories entitled The Twelve Trademarks of Great Literature. His most popular book is an introduction to worldviews based on the stories of Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde entitled The Deadliest Monster. Jeff and his wife Linda live in Canon City, Colorado.

Brandon Booth

Brandon attended the first leadership camp in 1996 as a student. He returned as a Discipleship Staff member, then became a Camp Discipleship Director, a member of the Faculty of Theology, and Associate Executive Director of Ministry of Worldview Academy. He received his B.A. in Philosophy from Hillsdale College and his M.A. in Historical Theology from Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis, MO. Brandon, his wife, Liv, and their five children live in Colorado and enjoy traveling, reading, and spending lots of time together.

Jay Winslow

Jay Winslow has been teaching in public and private schools for over thirty-five years emphasizing worldview and critical thinking skills. He has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in rhetoric and frequently speaks on issues including worldview, education, language and literacy, and the effects of the media on our culture. He has in-serviced educators through groups such as ACSI and the Systems Thinking Network Project. Jay and his wife Regina have three sons and live in Arizona.

J. Mark Bertrand

J. Mark Bertrand is a “major crime fiction talent” according to the Weekly Standard, which compares his three novels––Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and Nothing to Hide––with the work of Michael Connelly and Ian Rankin. Mark’s nonfiction book Rethinking Worldview is taught in university and seminary classrooms, and is the basis for a number of his lectures. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and has lectured on theology and culture for more than a decade at Worldview Academy. Mark and his wife Laurie live in South Dakota.

Mike Schutt

Mike Schutt is Director of Law Student Ministries and Attorney Ministries at the Christian Legal Society. He is also Director of the Institute for Christian Legal Studies (ICLS), a cooperative ministry of CLS and Trinity Law school, where he is Visiting Professor. ICLS seeks to encourage Christian law students, professors, and lawyers to seek and study biblical truth as it relates to law and legal institutions. He also serves with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as the national coordinator of its Law School Ministry and is the author of Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession. He lives with his wife, Lisa, in Mount Pleasant, Texas. His wonderful kids and their awesome spouses are saving up to support their parents in their old age.

Dell Cook

Dell holds two masters degrees (M.Div and ThM) in theology. He has served in several camp ministries around the nation as well as Director of Student Ministries in North Carolina and Florida. He is currently the Headmaster of Cary Christian School, a classical academy in North Carolina. Dell has taught Theology, Apologetics, and History at the high school and seminary level. During the summers, Dell travels with his family teaching Worldview Academy students. He, his wife Ginny and their three children live in North Carolina.

Paul Jordan

Paul Jordan is a professor of Computer Science at Southern Wesleyan University. He serves as an elder at his church and has a passion for teaching the Word of God. He is the founder and a teacher of Community Bible Institute, where faculty train adults in hermeneutics, apologetics, Biblical studies, Christian theology, and worldview issues. Paul and his wife, Vicki, have two children and live near Clemson, South Carolina.

Mike Tiland

Mike Tiland began serving with Worldview Academy as a Discipleship Staff member, Staff Discipleship Director and now Camp Discipleship Director/Faculty of Theology. Mike graduated from Oregon State University with a B.S. in accounting and a minor in philosophy. He then completed a Masters of Divinity in Christian Ministry from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In the camp off season, he is an Executive Pastor in South Carolina where he lives with his wife Angela and their three children.

Andrew Frye

Andrew Frye lives in Grants Pass, Oregon with his wife Terry and their two children. He is the department chair for history at Grants Pass High School and is an adjunct instructor at Rogue Community College. He also serves as an Adjunct Faculty, at Pacific Bible College in Medford, OR teaching apologetics and social studies. He has served the church as a worship leader, elder, and teacher. Andrew is a James Madison Fellow-Scholar and holds a MA in history and philosophy from Excelsior College, where he did work at Georgetown University and Oxford University, England and a B.A. in history from San Diego State University.

Chad Warren

Chad began serving with Worldview Academy in 2002 as a Discipleship Staff member, Staff Discipleship Director, Camp Discipleship Director and Faculty of Theology. After completing a B.S. in Philosophy from Oregon State University, Chad went on to obtain his M.A. in Christian and Classical Studies from Knox Theological Seminary. With a passion for teaching, Chad has taught in Classical and Christian schools for over a decade as well as serving as a Yale Ministry Fellow with Christian Union. Chad, his wife Shanon, and their three children live in Georgetown, Texas where he is the Director of Advancement at Grace Academy.

Holly Boland, Registrar

Holly Boland, née Nelson, has served with Worldview Academy since 2002 as a Discipleship Staff member, Staff Discipleship Director, Associate Camp Discipleship Director and Camp Registrar. Holly graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Education and has served in a variety of ministries to students ranging from junior high to college-age. Holly and her husband Matt live in Midland, Texas.

Amelia Capo, Special Events Coordinator

Amelia “Mia” Capo attended camp as a high school student where the beauty of truth & grace changed her life. (And she hasn’t recovered.) Since 2009, she has served with Worldview Academy as a Discipleship Staff member, Staff Discipleship Director, Program Director, and, currently, as an Associate Camp Discipleship Director. During the “off season,” Amelia helps coordinate Christianity & Culture Conferences and Worldview Academy’s presence at homeschool conventions. In addition, she oversees staff recruitment and manages our online store. Born and raised in Austin, she currently makes her home “in the desert” at Worldview Academy’s headquarters in Midland, TX, where she enjoys ballroom dancing, serving in her local church, and riding her motorcycle.

Hannah Ballinger, Communications Director

Never a Worldview Academy student, Hannah “came late to the party” as a Discipleship Staff member in 2013 — and never left. After completing a degree in English and Journalism, she began serving as Communications Director in 2014. Passionate about content creation, Hannah merges writing and design as a part of Worldview Academy’s marketing team. In addition to managing social media, she helps connect biblical thinking with everyday life as a contributing writer and Associate Editor of [ relay ], Worldview Academy’s online journal. A born-and-raised “Okie” girl, Hannah travels with camp during the summer and spends the “off season” working on both sides of the Red River.

Hope Cassidy, Director of Regional Representatives

Hope Cassidy fell in love with Jesus and with the pursuit of truth as a Worldview Academy student in 2012 and 2013, and has served as a Discipleship staff member for three summers since. She is currently pursuing a B.S. in Religion and Christian Ministry through Liberty University Online while serving as the Director of Regional Representatives with Worldview Academy, and is excited to see how God can use the network of representatives nation-wide to share the ministry of Worldview with more people than ever before.